Life in Verse: Journeys through Poetry

Description

This publication complements the landmark BBC series 'My Life in Verse', making our official tie-in anthology available as a paperback. It includes poetry from Yeats, Tennyson, Blake, Larkin, E. E. Cummings, Don Paterson, Roald Dahl, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more. Within the anthology are poems chosen by actress Sheila Hancock exploring human relationships, most poignantly the death of her husband John Thaw; comic Robert Webb has selected the modern verse that inspires him; musician Cerys Matthews celebrates the rich verse of Wales, Ireland and Scotland; and writer Malorie Blackman chooses the rich variety of multicultural poetry that has spoken to her.

Sheila Hancock is a well known and loved British actress. In 1974 Sheila Hancock was awarded an OBE for her services to drama. She was also the first female artistic director at the RSC. Robert Webb is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is one half of the Mitchell and Webb double act and his most notable show to date is the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show. Webb married fellow comedy performer Abigail Burdess in 2007, and they live in Kilburn. Cerys Matthews is a Welsh singer and songwriter, best known for her lead vocals in the rock band Catatonia. She has also performed with Tom Jones. Homesick while living in Nashville, Matthews turned to the work of the Welsh bards and developed a love of the greatest Celtic writers. Malorie Blackman is a writer and was made an OBE in 2008. She is best known for her novels for children and young adults, most notably the award-winning Noughts and Crosses sequence, which explores racism and violence from a unique perspective.